United States v. Baltimore Towing Co.

THOMSEN, Chief Judge.

Respondents have filed exceptions, on the ground of laches, to the libel in personam filed against them by the government in 1956 for damages sustained by its tanker in a collision in 1947.

*855The general rule is that the government is not barred by laches. United States v. Kirkpatrick, 9 Wheat. 720, 735, 6 L.Ed. 199; U. S. v. Summerlin, 310 U. S. 414, 60 S.Ct. 1019, 84 L.Ed. 1283; United States v. Alex Dussel Iron Works, 5 Cir., 31 F.2d 535. This rule, however, is not universally applicable. Cooke v. United States, 91 U.S. 389, 398, 23 L.Ed. 237; Chesapeake & Delaware Canal…